From Alexander Hamilton to John Clark, Junior, 17 June 1794
To John Clark, Junior1
Philadelphia June 17 1794
Dear Sir
It was quite impossible for me to have reported upon your Petition at the last session without giving just dissatisfaction to many others nor whatever may have been my Report, could it have been of any use to you from the extreme pressure of business in the House.2 You may rely (my health being preserved) on a report at the beginning of the next session.
With esteem & regard I am Dr Sir Your obed ser
A Hamilton
John Clark Esq
ALS, RG 46, Records of the United States Senate; Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents, Claims (15A-G1), National Archives.
1. During the American Revolution, Clark, a resident of York, Pennsylvania, was successively a lieutenant in the First Continental Infantry, a major in the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania Flying Camp, and aide-de-camp to Major General Nathanael Greene. From February, 1778, to November, 1779, he was auditor of accounts for the Army under Washington’s command.
2. On February 4, 1794, “A petition of John Clark, of the State of Pennsylvania, was presented to the House and read, praying the liquidation and settlement of a claim for services, as Auditor of Accounts to the Army of the United States, during the late war.
“Ordered, That the said petition be referred to the Secretary of the Treasury, with instruction to examine the same, and report his opinion, thereupon to the House.” (, II, 54.)
On January 5, 1795, H returned the petition to the House, where it was referred on January 7 to the Committee of Claims. On March 2, 1795, the Committee of Claims “made a report; which was read, and ordered to lie on the table” (, II, 286, 353).
Documents, including accounts and letters from prominent Americans supporting Clark’s claim, may be found in RG 46, Records of the United States Senate; Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents, Claims (15A-G1), National Archives. In this material is the copy of a petition which Clark sent to Congress on December 23, 1818, when he was sixty-eight. In this petition he based his claim on a wound which he had received in the war and on funds still owed to him as auditor. “An Act for the relief of John Clark,” which became law on February 20, 1819, authorized that Clark be issued a “land warrant for the quantity of eight hundred and fifty acres of land” ( 224).